Hyperfest – West Virginia’s automotive amusement park

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Forget Le Mans, we’re going to West Virginia for some rough-and-ready racing and a Daisy Duke Contest

On the day the 80th edition of one of the world’s most iconic motor races – the Le Mans 24 Hours – gets under way, an altogether, how shall we put it, less prestigious, rougher around the edges, festival of speed gears up just outside Washington DC.

Every June for the last 11 years, thousands of petrolheads from across the East Coast have turned Summit Point Raceway (located 70 miles west of the capital) it into their own automotive amusement park.

It feels like almost every part of the motorsport spectrum is represented at HyperFest. Okay, so clearly not every part – this is not the kind of scene the stars of Formula 1, Nascar or Indycar typically grace. And they duly don’t.

The attractions aren’t limited to the cars and bikes though. We’re sure the action that takes place off the track, draws people back year after as much as that on it. The Daisy Duke Contest being just one example. And yes, it is what you just imagined it to be.

But for our money, the real fun’s in the taking part – in the motorsport that is. We’re talking the two-hour day/night kart race. Grab two buddies and test your endurance in the most basic of racing machines against a bunch of other, similarly amateur teams. Trust us when we say your arms will ache for days after!

Alternately, the Rice-Rice Challenge challenges teams of four to modify a car in the most imaginative and humorous way possible using only basic tools and building materials, such as spray paint, plywood, cardboard and plastic piping.

Brett hopes to one day reach the shores of far-flung Tristan da Cunha, the most remote of all the inhabited archipelagos on Earth…as to what he’ll do when he gets there, he hasn’t a clue. Over the last 10 years, London, New York, Cape Town and Pondicherry have all proudly been referred to as home. Now it’s Copenhagen’s turn, where he lends his travel expertise to momondo.com.